2018 WRC2 Championship

The 2018 FIA WRC2 Championship was the sixth season of WRC2, a rallying championship organised and governed by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, running in support of the World Rally Championship. The championship was open to cars complying with R4, R5, and Super 2000 regulations.^[1]

2018 FIA WRC2 Championship

Previous

2017

Next

2019

Parent series:
FIA World Rally Championship
Support series:
WRC3
Junior WRC

Jan Kopecký defeated former champion Pontus Tidemand to the title.

Škoda Motorsport became teams' champion for the third time.

Pontus Tidemand and Jonas Andersson were the defending drivers' and co-drivers' champions. Škoda Motorsport were the defending teams' champions. Although Škoda Motorsport went on to win the teams' championship for the third year in a row, Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler succeeded for the drivers' and co-drivers' titles defeating the former champions.

Calendar

The championship was contested over thirteen rounds in Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Oceania.^[2]

A map showing the locations of the rallies in the 2018 World Rally Championship season.

Round	Dates		Rally	Rally headquarters	Rally details
	Start	Finish			Surface	Stages	Distance
1	25 January	28 January	Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo	Gap, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur[a]	Mixed[b]	17	394.74 km
2	15 February	18 February	Rally Sweden	Torsby, Värmland	Snow	19	314.25 km
3	8 March	11 March	Rally Guanajuato México	León, Guanajuato	Gravel	22	344.49 km
4	5 April	8 April	Tour de Corse	Bastia, Haute-Corse	Tarmac	12	333.48 km
5	26 April	29 April	Rally Argentina	Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	18	358.25 km
6	17 May	20 May	Rally de Portugal	Matosinhos, Porto	Gravel	20	358.19 km
7	7 June	10 June	Rally Italia Sardegna	Alghero, Sardinia	Gravel	20	313.46 km
8	26 July	29 July	Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Keski-Suomi	Gravel	23	317.26 km
9	16 August	19 August	ADAC Rallye Deutschland	Bostalsee, Saarland	Tarmac	18	325.76 km
10	13 September	16 September	Marmaris Rally of Turkey	Marmaris, Muğla	Gravel	17	312.44 km
11	4 October	7 October	Wales Rally GB	Deeside, Flintshire	Gravel	23	318.34 km
12	25 October	28 October	RACC Rally Catalunya de España	Salou, Tarragona	Mixed[c]	18	331.58 km
13	15 November	18 November	Rally Australia	Coffs Harbour, New South Wales	Gravel	24	318.64 km
Source:[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Calendar changes

The Rally of Poland was removed from the calendar after the FIA repeatedly raised concerns about the event's safety.^[12] The FIA had previously ordered a review of the event's safety standards ahead of the 2017 event, threatening to rescind the rally's World Championship status if conditions were not improved.^[13]

The Rally of Poland was replaced by the Rally of Turkey, which returned to the calendar for the first time since 2010.^[2] The event, which was previously based in Istanbul, return to south-western Turkey. It was based in the coastal resort town of Marmaris in Muğla Province,^[14] with the route running along the Mediterranean coastline.^[15]

The rallies of Great Britain and Catalunya swapped places on the schedule, with Rally Catalunya becoming the penultimate round of the championship.^[2] Rallye Deutschland relocated to a new headquarters with the service park located at the Bostalsee reservoir in Saarland state.^[6]

Route changes

Rallye Monte Carlo featured a heavily revised route from the 2017 event, with half the route being brand new.^[5] After starting in Mexico City in 2017, Rally Mexico returned to its traditional start in Guanajuato. The route featured minor changes and included a new Power Stage.^[16]

The route for the Tour de Corse was heavily revised, with only two of the seven stages being run as they were in 2017. The headquarters of the event was relocated to Bastia, which hosted the event for the first time since 1978.^[17]

Organisers of the Wales Rally GB announced plans for a heavily revised route. The changes were made possible by the passage of legislation by the British government allowing public roads to be used for motorsport.^[18][19]

Entries

Eligible models

The 2018 season saw several new car models become available for competition:

• Citroën made an R5 variation of the C3, known as the Citroën C3 R5.^[20] The Citroën DS3 R5 was still eligible to compete.
• Volkswagen entered WRC2 for the first time with the Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, the replacement for the cancelled Polo R WRC project.^[21]

Entry list

The following teams and crews were entered in the 2018 FIA WRC2 Championship:

Manufacturer	Car	Entrant	Tyre	Driver	Co-driver	Rounds
Ford	Ford Fiesta R5	M-Sport Ford WRT	M	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	1, 9, 11
				Teemu Suninen	Mikko Markkula	1
				Marco Bulacia	Fernando Mussano	3
			D			5
				Nil Solans	Miquel Ibañez	3–6
			P			9
					Marc Martí	11–12
			M	Gus Greensmith	Craig Parry	3, 5–6, 8
					Stuart Loudon	9
					Alex Gelsomino	10–11
				Pedro Heller	Pablo Olmos	3, 5–6, 10, 13
				Alberto Heller	José Diaz	5, 13
				Jouni Virtanen	Enni Mälkönen	8
			P	Georgios Vassilakis	Spyros Koltsidas	10
		X-One Racing	P	Kevin Abbring	Pieter Tsjoen	1–2, 6
		Tommi Mäkinen Racing	P	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	2, 6
			M			4, 7–8, 12
				Hiroki Arai	Jarmo Lehtinen	7–8
					Glenn MacNeall	4
			P			2, 6
		Tommi Mäkinen Racing 2	M	Jarkko Nikara	Sayaka Adachi	8
		TAIF Motorsport	M	Radik Shaymiev	Maxim Tsvetkov	2
		GB Motors	P	Gianluca Linari	Nicola Arena	2
		Castrol Ford Team Türkiye	P	Murat Bostanci	Onur Vatansever	6, 8, 10
		Keane Motorsport	P	Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	6
		Lotos Rally Team	P	Kajetan Kajetanowicz	Maciek Szczepaniak	7, 9–10, 12
		Ford Motorsport Turkey	P	Yağiz Avci	Ersan Alkir	10
				Deniz Fahri	Bahadir Gücenmez	10
				Bora Manyera	Cem Çerkez	10
Škoda Auto	Škoda Fabia R5	Škoda Motorsport II	M	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	1, 4, 7, 9–10
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	4, 7
				Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	9, 11
				Pontus Tidemand	Jonas Andersson	10–11
		Škoda Motorsport				2–3, 5–6
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	2, 8
				Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	3, 5, 8, 12
				Juuso Nordgren	Tapio Suominen	6
				Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	12
		Printsport	M	Łukasz Pieniążek	Przemysław Mazur	2, 4, 6–7, 9, 11–12
				Emil Lindholm	Mikael Korhonen	8
			P	Lars Stugemo	Kalle Lexe	2, 8
		S.A. Motorsport Italia Srl	D	Umberto Scandola	Andrea Gaspari	2, 9
		CA1 Sport Ltd	D	Fredrik Åhlin	Joakim Sjöberg	2
		Pontus Tidemand Racing	P	Mattias Adielsson	Andreas Johansson	2
		Toksport World Rally Team	P	Janne Tuohino	Reeta Hämäläinen	2
				Jarmo Berg	Rami Suorsa	2
			M	Chris Ingram	Ross Whittock	10–11
				Henning Solberg	Ilka Minor	12
				Rhys Yates	Elliott Edmondson	12
		Motorsport Italia	P	Benito Guerra	Borja Rozada	3, 6–9
					Emanuele Inglesi	12
				Diogo Salvi	Hugo Magalhães	10
				Armin Kremer	Pirmin Winklhofer	13
		ACI Team Italia WRC	P	Fabio Andolfi	Simone Scattolin	4, 6, 12
					Emanuele Inglesi	8–9, 11
		Saba Competición	D	Gustavo Saba	Marcelo der Ohannesian	5
		ABR World Rally Team	D	Tiago Weiler	Fabian Cretu	5
		TGS Worldwide	M	Eerik Pietarinen	Juhana Raitanen	8
		Škoda Auto Deutschland	M	Fabian Kreim	Frank Christian	9
		BC Vision Motorsport	M	Burak Çukurova	Vedat Bostanci	10
			P	Erkan Güral	Burak Koçoğlu	10
		Race Seven	D	Marco Bulacia	Fabian Cretu	11–12
		2C Competition	M	Sylvain Michel	Anthony Gorguilo	12
Peugeot	Peugeot 208 T16 R5	Peugeot Belgium Luxembourg	M	Guillaume De Mévius	Louis Louka	1, 4
Citroën	Citroën DS3 R5	PH Sport	M	Eddie Sciessere	Flavio Zanella	1
	Citroën C3 R5			Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	11
		Citroën Total	M	Stéphane Lefebvre	Gabin Moreau	4, 6–9, 11–12
				Simone Tempestini	Sergiu Itu	7–12
				Ole Christian Veiby	Stig Rune Skjærmoen	12
		CHL Sport Auto	M	Yoann Bonato	Benjamin Boulloud	4, 9
		Sports & You	M	Pepe López	Borja Rozada	12
Hyundai	Hyundai i20 R5	Hyundai Motorsport	M	Jari Huttunen	Antti Linnaketo	2–3, 6, 8–9, 11–12
				Nicolas Ciamin	Thibault de la Haye	4, 7–9
				Max Vatanen	Christopher Guieu	6
		BRC Racing Team	M	Pierre-Louis Loubet	Vincent Landais	4, 6–9, 11–12
		Hyundai Paraguay	D	Diego Dominguez	Edgardo Galindo	5
		Metior Sport	M	Eddie Sciessere	Pietro Ometto	9
		Hyundai Motor España	M	José Antonio Suárez	Cándido Carrera	9, 12
Volkswagen	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	Volkswagen Motorsport	M	Eric Camilli	Benjamin Veillas	12
				Petter Solberg	Veronica Engan	12
Subaru	Subaru Impreza WRX STi	GB Motors	P	Gianluca Linari	Pietro Ometto	13
Source:[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]

Results and standings

Season summary

Round	Event	Winning driver	Winning co-driver	Winning entrant	Winning time	Report
1	Rallye Monte Carlo	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	4:35:38.5	Report
2	Rally Sweden	Takamoto Katsuta	Marko Salminen	Tommi Mäkinen Racing	3:01:27.5	Report
3	Rally México	Pontus Tidemand	Jonas Andersson	Škoda Motorsport	4:04:32.7	Report
4	Tour de Corse	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	3:37:27.5	Report
5	Rally Argentina	Pontus Tidemand	Jonas Andersson	Škoda Motorsport	3:55:44.7	Report
6	Rally Portugal	Pontus Tidemand	Jonas Andersson	Škoda Motorsport	4:03:57.4	Report
7	Rally Italia Sardegna	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	3:42:33.3	Report
8	Rally Finland	Eerik Pietarinen	Juhana Raitanen	TGS Worldwide OU	2:45:18.4	Report
9	Rallye Deutschland	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	3:16:49.7	Report
10	Rally Turkey	Jan Kopecký	Pavel Dresler	Škoda Motorsport II	4:17:49.7	Report
11	Wales Rally GB	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport II	3:15:27.2	Report
12	Rally Catalunya	Kalle Rovanperä	Jonne Halttunen	Škoda Motorsport	3:20:47.6	Report
13	Rally Australia	Alberto Heller	José Diaz	M-Sport Ford WRT	3:22:20.5	Report

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event. Six best results counted towards championship.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

FIA WRC2 Championship for Drivers

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Drops Points 1 Jan Kopecký 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 143 2 Pontus Tidemand 2 1 1 1 Ret 2 0 111 3 Kalle Rovanperä 5 Ret 4 2 1 1 0 90 4 Gus Greensmith 2 2 8 3 Ret Ret 3 0 70 5 Łukasz Pieniążek 9 5 2 5 6 6 16 0 56 6 Fabio Andolfi 3 15 4 8 3 8 8 0 54 7 Ole Christian Veiby 3 4 2 Ret 11 9 0 47 8 Jari Huttunen 6 6 12 2 12 4 11 0 46 9 Pedro Heller 3 3 10 5 Ret 0 41 10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz 7 5 4 4 0 40 11 Pierre-Louis Loubet 6 4 Ret 5 Ret Ret 7 0 36 12 Nil Solans 7 7 5 9 Ret 13 5 0 34 13 Stéphane Lefebvre Ret 3 8 13 8 5 15 0 33 14 Takamoto Katsuta 1 8 13 Ret Ret 12 0 29 15 Simone Tempestini 16 Ret 9 10 2 7 10 0 28 16 Eerik Pietarinen 1 0 25 17 Alberto Heller Ret 1 0 25 18 Hiroki Arai 7 9 5 Ret 7 0 24 19 Benito Guerra DNS 7 6 6 9 0 24 20 Nicolas Ciamin Ret 3 Ret 7 0 21 21 Yoann Bonato 2 11 0 18 22 Gianluca Linari 12 2 0 18 23 Eddie Sciessere 2 WD 0 18 24 Chris Ingram 3 12 0 15 25 Teemu Suninen 3 0 15 26 Petter Solberg 3 0 15 27 Marco Bulacia 4 Ret 9 18 0 14 28 Guillaume De Mévius 4 WD 0 12 29 Mattias Adielsson 4 0 12 30 Diego Dominguez 4 0 12 31 Fabian Kreim 4 0 12 32 Janne Tuohino 5 0 10 33 Juuso Nordgren 6 0 8 34 Burak Cukurova 6 0 8 35 Henning Solberg 6 0 8 36 Diogo Salvi 7 0 6 37 Lars Stugemo 8 12 0 4 38 Bora Manyera 8 0 4 39 Erkan Güral 9 0 2 40 Murat Bostanci 11 10 Ret 0 1 41 Eric Camilli Ret Ret 10 17 0 1 42 Jarmo Berg 10 0 1 43 Georgios Vassilakis 10 0 1 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Drops Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

FIA WRC2 Championship for Co-Drivers

Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Drops Points 1 Pavel Dresler 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 143 2 Jonas Andersson 2 1 1 1 Ret 2 0 111 3 Jonne Halttunen 5 Ret 4 2 1 1 0 90 4 Przemysław Mazur 9 5 2 5 6 6 16 0 56 5 Craig Parry 2 2 8 3 0 55 6 Stig Rune Skjærmoen 3 4 2 Ret 11 9 0 47 7 Antti Linnaketo 6 6 12 2 12 4 11 0 46 8 Pablo Olmos 3 3 10 5 Ret 0 41 9 Maciek Szczepaniak 7 5 4 4 0 40 10 Vincent Landais 6 4 Ret 5 Ret Ret 7 0 36 11 Gabin Moreau Ret 3 8 13 8 5 15 0 33 12 Simone Scattolin 3 15 4 8 0 31 13 Marko Salminen 1 8 13 Ret Ret 12 0 29 14 Sergiu Itu 16 Ret 9 10 2 7 10 0 28 15 Juhana Raitanen 1 0 25 16 José Díaz Ret 1 0 25 17 Miquel Ibañez 7 7 5 9 Ret 0 24 18 Borja Rozada WD 7 6 6 9 0 24 19 Emanuele Inglesi 8 3 8 0 23 20 Thibault de la Haye Ret 3 Ret 7 0 21 21 Benjamin Boulloud 2 11 0 18 22 Flavio Zanella 2 0 18 23 Pietro Elia Ometto 2 0 18 24 Glenn MacNeall 7 9 5 0 18 25 Ross Whittock 3 12 0 15 26 Mikko Markkula 3 0 15 27 Alex Gelsomino Ret 3 0 15 28 Veronica Engan 3 0 15 29 Fernando Mussano 4 Ret 0 12 30 Louis Louka 4 WD 0 12 31 Andreas Johansson 4 0 12 32 Edgardo Galindo 4 0 12 33 Frank Christian 4 0 12 34 Marc Martí 13 5 0 10 35 Reeta Hämäläinen 5 0 10 36 Tapio Suominen 6 0 8 37 Vedat Bostanci 6 0 8 38 Ilka Minor 6 0 8 39 Hugo Magalhães 7 0 6 40 Jarmo Lehtinen Ret 7 0 6 41 Kalle Lexe 8 12 0 4 42 Cem Cerkez 8 0 4 43 Fabian Cretu Ret 9 18 0 2 44 Burak Koçoğlu 9 0 2 45 Onur Vatansever 11 10 Ret 0 1 46 Benjamin Veillas Ret Ret 10 17 0 1 47 Rami Suorsa 10 0 1 48 Spiros Koltsidas 10 0 1 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Drops Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

FIA WRC2 Championship for Teams

Pos. Team MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points 1 Škoda Motorsport II 1 1 1 1 1 1 150 2 Škoda Motorsport 2 1 1 1 3 1 133 3 Printsport 5 3 2 3 10 5 4 11 81 4 ACI Team Italia WRC 2 9 2 7 2 5 6 80 5 Hyundai Motorsport 4 2 8 2 9 2 8 76 6 Citroën Total Rallye Team Ret 3 6 8 6 3 7 56 7 Tommi Mäkinen Racing 1 5 5 Ret 6 9 55 8 Lotos Rally Team 5 4 3 3 52 9 M-Sport Ford WRT 2 Ret 11 Ret 6 1 51 10 Toksport World Rally Team 3 2 8 4 49 11 BRC Racing Team 4 4 Ret 4 Ret Ret 5 46 12 Motorsport Italia WD 6 4 5 5 Ret 40 13 TGS Worldwide OU 1 25 14 Volkswagen Motorsport 2 18 15 Škoda Auto Deutschland 3 15 16 S.A. Motorsport Italia Srl 6 7 14 17 BC Vision Motorsport 4 12 18 Castrol Ford Team Türkiye 7 9 Ret 8 19 PH Sport 7 6 20 CHL Sport Auto 8 4 21 Sports&you 10 1 Pos. Driver MON SWE MEX FRA ARG POR ITA FIN DEU TUR GBR CAT AUS Points

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Black Excluded (EX) Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Cancelled (C) Blank Withdrew entry from the event (WD)

Notes

1. The rally base of the Monte Carlo Rally was located in France.
2. Rallye Monte Carlo was run on a tarmac and snow surface.
3. Rally Catalunya was run on a tarmac and gravel surface.